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CrimeHaiti

Patients evacuated after gang surrounds Haiti hospital

November 16, 2023

People who were trapped inside the hospital after a heavily armed gang surrounded the area in Port-au-Prince have been evacuated. The hospital director said three armored trucks were sent for the rescue.

https://p.dw.com/p/4Yr8g
The entrance at the Fontaine Hospital Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
The Fontaine Hospital Center is considered an oasis in the community.Image: Odelyn Joseph/AP Photo/picture alliance

A heavily armed gang surrounded the Fontaine Hospital Center in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. The hospital is considered a lifeline to the community living in the Cite Soleil shantytown, which has been seeing violent attacks by gangs against each other as well as residents.

The hospital founder and director, Jose Ulysse, told the AP news agency that gangs were setting homes around the hospital on fire, due to which people inside were unable to leave.

Police help evacuate

Ulysse had initially said some gang members entered the hospital, but later said none of them had come in, and denied reports that they had entered the facility and taken patients hostage.

"There was no hostage-taking. There was a gang war, but the war is around the hospital. We've had neighboring houses burnt down," he told the AFP news agency.

"All the health staff took cover... and we had to call the police to come and help us evacuate all the people who couldn't move on their own, among them women who had a caesarean yesterday and couldn't walk," he said.

Ulysse said Haitian police arrived with three armored trucks and evacuated 40 children and 70 other patients to a safe space. Some patients fled the scene on their own.

Ulysse said those responsible were members of the Brooklyn gang, led by Gabriel Jean-Pierre, also known as "Ti Gabriel." The gang has around 200 members and is involved in extortion, hijacking of goods and violence, according to a UN report.

Jean-Pierre is also the leader of a gang alliance called G-Pep, one of the two rival coalitions in Haiti.

Haitian gangs have become more powerful since the assassination of  President Jovenel Moise, and the numbers of kidnappings and killings have risen.

Earlier this year, at least 20 armed gang members burst into a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders and took away a patient in an operating room.

tg/sms (AFP, AP)